Question about Equity and Efficiency (Principles of Economics - N.Gregory Mankiw)?

Question

Discuss the following statement from the standpoints of equity and efficiency.
"Everyone in society should be guaranteed the best health care possible".

Answer 1

I disagree with the statement, "Everyone in society should be guaranteed the best health care possible".

First debate would be defining what "Best Health care possible is". Some argue that vaccinations are the best ... while others feel that organ transplants, stem-cell research, and other experimental plastic surgery's are the "Best" available.

Vaccinations to the world does universally benefit the whole world ... study the research for the "Global Pandemics" like a possible "Bird Flu" outbreak ... if a vaccination were available to all the world citizens, then we would not fear this flu. However, scientists claim that there is only 5% of the vaccine for the world.

With "Organ" Transplants ... here the "Organ" is the equity. Some of the third world countries sell organ parts to developed countries ... so in this case, a person who drank heavily when they were young ruined their liver, and then took a healthy liver from a young person. This ruins the equity and efficiency and does quite the opposite.

Additionally, with the population in an inverted pyramid, soon the economy will have difficulty providing the funding (labor taxes won't cut it anymore) to provide so many senior citizens with endless, and the newest medical advancements. However, should the government increase the taxes on inheritance and death taxes; this would increase our efficiency to provide for more medical benefits.

Answer 2

For efficiency - Yes
For equity and efficiencey- Yes, that means EVERYONE!
your scribe
Allan W Janssen